11-20, 11:30–11:55 (Pacific/Auckland), WG403
Powered by a newly architected headless map engine written in Rust and WebAssembly, Navara combines photorealistic rendering, unconstrained custom-shader freedom, and a high-performance API in a single platform. This session introduces the technology behind Navara and showcases the real-world use cases these capabilities unlock.
Traditional map engines often struggle to (1) expand their visualization capabilities and (2) prevent interactive logic from becoming overly complicated and slow. Navara, under development since FY 2024, breaks this mold by fully decoupling the GIS engine from the rendering engine. Complex GIS operations—coordinate transformations, LOD management, ellipsoid computations—run in a Rust/WASM headless core, while any renderer (e.g., Three.js) handles drawing.
During the current fiscal year we implemented:
- Visual API – realistic atmosphere, clouds, night-time lighting, and other photoreal effects.
- GIS API – coordinate conversion, ellipsoid geometry, and other GIS-specific computations.
In this talk we will dive into these APIs, share architectural insights, and demonstrate the kinds of applications Navara is built to power.
Intended Audience
- 3D-engine and real-time graphics developers
- Researchers, municipalities, and enterprises working with GIS data
- Creators who want to combine photoreal rendering with rich data visualization
Takeaways
- Design patterns for headless GIS + rendering-engine architectures
- Examples of photorealistic visual effects achievable with Navara
- How the GIS API enables advanced, high-speed interactions
3D Computer Graphics Developer